


constants, changes

by justqueen



Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26295829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justqueen/pseuds/justqueen
Summary: When the awkward silence engulfed them once again, Anna wondered why she had let it come to this. She and Skandar could have fixed this months ago. She could have reached out to Will. She could have ignored the fact that he was halfway around the world and just talk to him.He would do it for her.*A companion piece torevision notes
Relationships: Skandar Keynes/Anna Popplewell





	constants, changes

They were in Will's hotel room again, post after party, sprawled on the floor with cushions and pillows and a karaoke machine blaring in front of them.

This time, though, they were in a London hotel, recovering from the exhilaration that was the UK royal premiere of _Dawn Treader_. Anna was into her third glass of eggnog, relishing the beautiful fact that she didn't have to attend classes the next day. (She was beyond exhausted, having headed straight for the premiere after finishing a school drama which she starred and directed and laboured over for weeks. If it wasn't for her make-up artist's incredible work that night, she knew the Queen would have been frightened of her dark and heavy eye-bags.)

Also this time, she didn't look away from Skandar's burning gaze as he sang the lyrics “I know who I want to take me home” from Semisonic's ‘Closing Time’.

And there was no longer any teasing from Mark this time, too.

It was around their fourth hour into the karaoke (Andrew, Mark, and Michael had long since retired to their hotel rooms then) when Skandar snuggled tiredly against Anna's side while Ben and Will P. belted out ‘Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now’ on one mic with Will and Georgie doing the same on another.

He tangled a leg between hers and looped an arm around her abdomen, pressing his face against her neck and stayed there. She shifted slightly from her position on the floor to make him more comfortable, leaning against the foot of the bed to support his weight. She felt his long exhale of breath againt her neck.

“Are you okay?” Anna said, knowing he'd hear her despite the loud noise.

“Fine,” he responded, his lips moving against the side of her neck. “Although I feel like I could sleep for weeks.”

“Now you know how it feels.” She teased him, her lips only inches from his jaw when she tilted her head towards him. “You're lucky; you don't have classes the morning after a premiere.”

“Shut up.” He tightened his grip on her body.

When her turn came, Ben thrusted the mic to her. She gestured to Skandar who looked like he wasn't planning on disentangling himself from Anna anytime soon. Rolling his eyes, Ben gave the mic to Georgie who was more than happy to take it.

(It was the first time the karaoke house rules was broken but Anna, although a bit sorry, didn't feel guilty: Skandar was dozing in exhaustion against her neck.)

Over Ben's shoulder, Will gave them an unreadable look.

An hour later, when they finally called it a night and Skandar and Anna were heading towards their hotel room, she remembered she left her phone on Will's bedside table.

“I won't be long.” she assured him.

“You better not be or you'll be sleeping on the floor.” His hour-long nap seemed to have done him good, Anna thought. He looked surprisingly wide awake, though his eyes still seemed tired.

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Is that a threat, Skandar Amin Casper Keynes?”

His arm wounded its way around her waist before she knew it, pulling her flushed to him. Despite his exhaustion, his eyes still shone, deep and dark and endless. “You know it isn't.” His smile was soft yet crooked.

“I know.” Her devious smile mirrored his before he leaned down and kissed her.

His lips tasted like apples and chocolate.

Anna knew William wasn't expecting her when he opened his hotel room door and saw her standing there, hands shoved into the pockets of Skandar's dark blue hoodie that she was wearing. His eyes were drooping and so bloodshot that she wondered how much he had to drink that night.

“I left my phone.” she said.

“Oh.” he blinked once, twice, before he stepped aside to let her in.

They were in that awkward period where they hadn't been hanging out together for a long while (looking back on it, she would later realize that the last time she had actually hang out with Will was on Skandar's birthday in Australia) so Anna felt slightly odd when she made his way inside and he closed the door with a soft click behind her.

Which felt ridiculous because she had never ever felt odd with Will.

Of course, Anna knew the reason why they hadn't been hanging out together for a long while. For the umpteenth time since that birthday party, her guilt ate at her insides.

She spotted her phone on his bedside table, exactly where she left it hours ago. She stuffed it into her pocket and turned around, only to see Will standing there by the foot of the bed.

Anna shifted from foot to foot. His expression was unsettled, as if he wasn't sure what to do or what to say. Anna immediately felt a pang of guilt.

“I--” she said. “We were going to tell you. We just -- we didn't know how.”

Will snorted, flipping his too-long blonde hair with his hand. With another pang of guilt, Anna realized if they had only been talking, she'd have told him not to grow out his hair because it just looked wrong on him. And he would have listened to her. He always listened to her.

“I'm sorry.”

Will's eyebrows scrunched. “What are you sorry for? I'm not mad--”

“And it's okay if you are because I--”

“Anna," he walked over to her, stopping about two arms length away from her. The uncertainty in his blue eyes was still there but was somehow dwindling. “I'm not mad. Really. I'm just...” he hesitated. “Disappointed. Why didn't you tell me -- tell us -- sooner? Why did you wait over a year?”

She ran a hand over her face. Why did they? Why did she? “I don't know. We both wanted to tell you from the beginning but... everything got so... busy.” She was making excuses now. “And how do you bring up something like that, anyway?”

His lips twitched into a slight smile. “You didn't seem to have a problem with it in that party tent.”

Anna grinned at the memory, albeit slightly. “That was all Skandar and none of me.”

“Obviously.”

When the awkward silence engulfed them once again, Anna wondered why she had let it come to this. She and Skandar could have fixed this months ago. She could have reached out to Will. She could have ignored the fact that he was halfway around the world and just talk to him.

He would do it for her.

“It just feels like...” he said, breaking the silence. He was grasping for words, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. “...like everything has changed. That you and me -- the way we were -- we're no longer Will and Anna, no longer bestfriends.”

Anna knew Skandar wouldn't have hesitated to say something cheeky to break this sudden emotional moment with Will. She just wanted to hug him, to touch him, but something was stopping her and she was mentally cursing herself. “We're still bestfriends, Will! That's never going to change.”

“And I never want it to change too, Ann. But what if something happens? Skandar is like my brother... what am I supposed to do?” He took a seat on the edge of his bed.

In all honesty, Anna hadn't thought about that. Why would she? Everything was good between her and Skandar so far. There were disagreements, sure (they weren't exactly a perfect couple) but nothing they couldn't figure out over a serious conversation.

“Was that why you went to America?” she asked softly. “You were afraid that if something goes wrong, you’d be caught in the cross fire?”

Will looked up to her. His blue eyes were suddenly so piercing and so... _something_ , as unreadable as that look he gave her and Skandar hours ago, that Anna almost felt uncomfortable.

“Well,” she attempted a smile, making her way over to the bed and sitting down beside him. “Nothing’s happened so far, so there’s no need to fret. But,” she nudged his shoulder with hers. “I know, if the time comes, you'll know what to do.”

His blue eyed gaze was still so piercing and so... _something_ but there was warmth and affection in them now. He reached over and squeezed Anna's hand gently. She squeezed back.

They stayed like that, side by side on the bed, for a few more heartbeats.

“I should go. Skandar's...” Anna trailed off, the crestfallen look Will gave her made her guilty again.

“Waiting. I know.” He gave her a smile that matched his facade.

And then -- then -- Anna remembered.

Will wore the same expression when she'd kissed Ben in that seventeen-take kiss scene. He wore the same expression the morning after Skandar's birthday party when he came to his trailer only to see her there wearing his bathrobe. He wore the same expression when she kissed Skandar goodbye in the airport when they left after shooting their cameo. He wore the same expression earlier that night during the screening when Skandar whispered something in her ear and she laughed.

He wore the same expression hours ago when Skandar slept against her neck.

Why? Anna thought, wide-eyed and stupefied, breathing quickly and feeling like she was drowning in Will's sad and tired sky-blue orbs. Why didn't he say anything?

“Will, I'm-- I--” _Why?_

Will seemed to understand. Why wouldn't he? He knew her more than she seemed to know herself. Wasn't he always the one who sidles up to her between takes with a plate of toastie sandwich without her even knowing she's hungry? Wasn't he the one who always brings her a blanket without her realizing she's freezing?

He squeezed her hands once again. “I know.” His voice was low and quiet.

Anna withdrew her hands from his grip. Alarmed, Will looked up at her but before he could see the melancholy in her eyes, she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder blades. She gripped him tight, as if the second she'd slacken her hold she'd tumble into the abyss. He hugged her just as tight.

It might have been minutes or hours that they stayed like that, holding each other, but Anna never voiced out the million thank yous in her head. Not even once. But when Will gently kissed her forehead as she left him standing against the doorjamb, she knew he heard them.

Just as she had heard his I love you.

“That was so the opposite of not taking long.” Skandar quipped as she locked the hotel room door behind her with a soft click.

“Well,” Anna discarded his hoodie before turning off the lamplight and crawling to his side under the covers, tucking her chin at the crook of his neck and looping her arm around his chest. “We got into talking.”

“At three a.m. in the morning?”

“Mmm.” She kissed his neck.

“What did you talk about?”

She hesitated.

If there was one reason why they lasted two and a half years, it would be that they tell each other everything. But, this time, for the first time, Anna decided this was something Skandar didn't need to know.

“Nothing important.” Her lips were on his neck again. “Just how happy he is for us.”

“You were in there for almost an hour, babe.”

“And also about how horrible you were in the movie.”

“Oh, really?” Skandar peered down at her. His eyes seemed to gleam mischievously in the dark. “Why did Will never said a thing to me, then?”

“Because that's what he always do,” she answered, pulling herself more closer to him and tangling her legs with his under the sheets. “Hiding his true feelings to keep our family's balance.”

“Yeah, you're right.” He yawned before turning his head and pressing his lips against her forehead. “He's a big brother like that.”

“He is.” Anna curled her fingers on his shirt.

Later, when Skandar was asleep and she was still wide awake, listening to his breathing while his chest rise and fall beneath her fingertips, she remembered Will's sincere smile when he saw her out his hotel room door and his teasing admonishment not to tire Skandar out too much because he still has a press junket in the morning.

“Exactly like a big brother.” she murmured in the dark, smiling softly, before closing her eyes.

They were going to be alright. And she believed that.


End file.
